Indonesia day 28 – Pangandaran, west Java

For our last night we have had to move rooms at Adams Homestay – some mix up over how many nights we planned to stay meant that our room has been booked out to someone else tonight.  So now we have a room with hot water (quite a luxury) and a bath (can’t remember when we last had one of those) and a four poster bed.  Moreover bathroom is an extension of the balcony and is shielded from prying eyes by several bamboo blinds which makes it quite appealing in a quirky kind of way.   < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Languid Pangandaran has definitely pervaded our mood and  as a result we have done almost nothing whilst  in the way of visiting sights and ‘doing’ things.  Perhaps it’s a sub-conscious preparation for the melee that is supposed to be India.  Anyway, it has been a particularly relaxing few days and today is no different.  

We have a few chores which prevent us from being completely lazy though.  First to find the post office and send of the latest batch of postcards.  It turns out to be quite a walk from the hotel and when we arrive at 4pm it’s been closed for an hour.  As we shuffle around outside bemoaning the fact that we won’t have another opportunity to post the cards before we leave Indonesia, a man comes from the back of the building asking if we need stamps.  When we say we do, he goes back inside to open up the post office for us so that we can purchase said stamps.  Now where else would that happen?  Not even in Australia!

Next stop, the local supermarket to buy some food for tomorrow’s bus journey to Jakarta.  We have come across only two mini marts in Pangandaran, and like many in South East Asia they stock the food on the shelves seems  limited to things that can’t be purchased in the local market.   Things like biscuits (a whole aisle is dedicated to them), ice creams, baby food, packet noodles (about half an aisle to these), snacks (crisps and the like) sweets and a few bakery items.  This small range makes it difficult to buy food for a journey such as ours and we have to resort to buying the Indonesian equivalent of pain au chocolat.  Very nice, but not quite the sandwich we had in mind.

The last port of call is the second-hand bookshop which we visited a couple of days ago.  Andy has already (incredibly given his previous non-existant reading habits) finished the book he picked up here a couple of days ago and wants a replacement.  A sign on the planks that pass for a door on what is little more than a shack state the bookshop is open 8.30 am – 8.30pm, except, of course,  on those random days when it isn’t, like today.  So no book for Andy;  he will just have to make do with the book I’m about to finish – ‘Dark Star Safari’ by Paul Theroux, an enthralling travelogue of his  overland journey  through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town.

There are definitely more people in Pangandaran today, presumably for the start of the weekend and the beach is much more lively – families playing team beach games, building sandcastles, digging channels and playing in the sea;  all the usual activities that people the world over seem to indulge in at the seaside.  The most significant difference here is that most people in the sea are fully clothed which is still a strange sight even though we have seen it before.  Whilst the clothes of those involved in building sandcastles are covered the almost black, wet sand.

At 5pm the whistles of the patrolling lifeguards put an end to any further swimming and the sea empties as compliant holidaymakers retreat to the beach.